COMMUTERS parking at St Neots railway station got a shock when they stepped off the train to go home on Monday night. Over 40 of them found parking tickets stuck to their cars – some of them having parked in the same spaces they had used for over two year

COMMUTERS parking at St Neots railway station got a shock when they stepped off the train to go home on Monday night.

Over 40 of them found parking tickets stuck to their cars - some of them having parked in the same spaces they had used for over two years, according to commuters.

Leslie Rhymer, from Crosshall Road, Eynesbury, who works for a fire protection company and commutes from St Neots to London, was one of the people surprised to find a £25 penalty notice on his windscreen.

He told The Hunts Post: "All the cars had paid their parking fees - some of them had day fees, some of them had weekly or monthly season tickets. This is farcical. I will go to prison before I pay this fine.

"Once the bays are full, we park in a line. This is a system we have devised between ourselves. We are not blocking anyone in and we are not blocking the way for emergency vehicles. If you get there after 11am, all the bays are full. I commute to London a lot and we have been doing this for as long as I can remember."

He added: "I keep reading articles in The Hunts Post about residents near the station complaining about commuters parking outside their houses on residential streets - well, if people can't park at the railway station, that's where they are going to park. Then where are the residents going to park? It goes on and on."

First Capital Connect, the station operator, said it was aware of the lack of parking at St Neots and in light of this "NCP have always taken a flexible approach to issuing car parking fines".

A spokesman added: "NCP have recently increased the frequency of patrols across the car parks and are focusing on cars that are obviously obstructing exits or entrances or causing any kind of potential hazard."

She added: "We are currently investigating this matter with NCP to understand what may have happened on this date."

First Capital Connect has said that, if customers feel that they were wrongly issued a parking fine, they should contact NCP directly on 0845 050 7080.

The firm adds it has been working with Network Rail and NCP to identify expansion opportunities for parking and there is a plan to create over 150 spaces at the car park.